


Like a vid

by ElenaHana



Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Angst, Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Eventually Canon Compliant, F/M, Mild Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-17
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-03-15 00:15:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,399
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28804146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElenaHana/pseuds/ElenaHana
Summary: Life does end up looking like one of those movies full of unrealistic clichès, sometimes. The happy ones.That's what Commander Briar Shepard finds herself thinking after meeting one charming red-plated turian.Until it doesn't.
Relationships: Nihlus Kryik/Female Shepard
Comments: 6
Kudos: 24





	Like a vid

First Contact happened, script-wise, on par with any other instance of first contact she had seen during all the years spent watching sci-fi movies on her omni-tool.  
  


Alien race meets human race, and bang. Suddenly, war has broken out.  
  


The revelation that this one had all been due to a misunderstanding and lack of communication, on the contrary, was very anti-climatic.  
But if there was anything that movie-humans and real-life humans had in common it was arrogance and a tendency to shoot first and talk later, so the outcome was not surprising in the least.   
  


Shepard is trying not to succumb to that mentality - like many of her race - but Mindoir is still an open and bleeding gash in her mind, not yet scarred by the passing of time. She cannot judge a whole race by the actions of a select few individuals, but damn if she doesn't feel tempted to when batarians are involved.  
Humans are the fledglings of the galaxy and aren't really ready for the breakneck advancements in technology nor for being thrown in a melting pot of a dozen alien races they know nothing about.   
  


Shepard tries to keep an open mind, and after an adjustment period made of social blunders and accidental wincing whenever someone approaches her, she discovers that the other races have fantastic people and assholes just like humankind does.

Nevertheless, when other Alliance recruits see her "fraternizing with the enemy", the xenophobia comes out. If she were to make a comparison, she'd say they make it sound like she has just made friends with the xenomorph from Alien.

Maybe, if there had been more movies about friendly first contacts, the sticks up their asses wouldn't be so big. As it is, those sticks rival the ones everyone mocked the turians for.

***

When she meets Nihlus Kryik, she is long past the flinching phase, but her brain still pauses and restarts once they are standing in front of each other and shaking hands.  
  


He is tall, like all turians, but bulkier. The plates covering his skin are way different from the usual light-grey she is used to. They are dark red, a couple of shades darker than her own hair. And the way his green eyes quickly scan her back speak of curiosity rather than the thinly-veiled hostility she has often encountered so far.  
Briar needs no fictional heart-stopping feeling at first sight. She has a hunch that the both of them will click – race conflict be damned – and her instinct rarely proves her wrong.

And isn't it so very ironic when her hunch proves once again correct and Briar finds out that she has somehow caught feelings for him while they are one-upping each other's stories in front of drinks?

Of all the vids she felt like comparing her life to, she didn't expect a rom-com chock full of cliches would be it.

At least it will be a good one, if Nihlus' taloned hand drawing slow circles on her back and the way his green eyes soften when he looks at her are anything to go by.

***

Briar can't help but draw comparisons when the tension culminates and they both stumble into her quarters one night after an afternoon spent in the sim combat room.

The passion is there, if her heartbeat and the heat spike that sets all of her synapses on fire when Nihlus slides his hands under her thighs and hoists her up like she weighs nothing are indication enough.  
And, if she allowed the less rational part of her brain to speak, she would admit to herself that this already didn't feel like a one-time thing to scratch an itch and then be done with it.   
Briar wouldn't use the word 'love', but whatever it is, she is growing attached to this turian. It's not just the competence and seriousness he shows on the field, or his special brand of snarky humour that never fails to prompt a smile from her. It's a mix of all that, coupled with the way he engages her in tactical conversation and respects her opinion even when they disagree (a rare occurrence), and the openness he shows her. A closeness she has rarely found even in her most long-standing friendships.

And she can't deny the physical attraction, despite the blaring differences between them.

Perhaps, it's not turians she finds attractive, but just Nihlus.

A hand curling on the back of her neck and the press of Nihlus' mouth plates against her lips bring her back to reality and _oh_ isn't the thought of him holding her up with just one hand and her legs merely hanging over his hip spurs like an accessory doing even more things to her libido.

When they do fall into bed together, it is definitely not all smooth and hitch-less like vids make it look like.

There are a lot of false starts and a lot of accidental elbows on sensitive waists and pinching in soft places. Briar's hair, despite being short and sort of slicked back in her trademark mohawk, ends up tangled in one of Nihlus' mandibles and he almost cuts her with the spurs on his calves - of all the spiky parts she could hurt herself on.

But they find a rhythm, and they chuckle when they lose it, until the laughter turns once again into moans and they bring each other to orgasm.  
  


Afterwards, Briar rolls against Nihlus' side and feels the turian equivalent of a continuous purr rumbling in his chest while he smiles contentedly down at her. That is enough to prompt a wave of proverbial crazy butterflies inside her stomach.

It might not be like a movie, but it sure does fucking feel very close to perfection anyway.

***

If this were a vid, Shepard would act as soon as the second voice makes itself heard in her earpiece.  
  


If this were a vid, Shepard would shout her own feelings and the sheer power of her declaration would be enough to make a miracle happen.

But they are not in a vid.

When she hears Saren's voice alongside Nihlus', she is still too far. She is not quick enough and her first word of warning gets drowned by the sound of one single gunshot.

They are not in a vid. Nihlus dies with a last rasping breath in her earpiece, and Shepard's "I love you" remains stuck in her throat, tearing her up from the inside like shards of glass.

There is no magic. No happy ending.

Only a pool of blue staining the ground after they retrieve Nihlus' body, and the ghost of a person where 'Briar' - the human part behind 'Commander Shepard' - used to be.

***

Shepard is not living inside a vid.

And yet, like every single lead character, she is doomed to drag her weight forward until she reaches the end. Until whatever higher power is pulling her along like a puppeteer decides it's time to cut the strings off and lets her die for good.

One more choice.

The power conduit in front of her is a blazing tower of red.

_Nihlus' plates were red._

Briar pulls out her gun and fires the first shot towards the glass case.

And one more.

A new bullet for every step she takes.

Her left hand joins the other on the gun and steadies it, staining it red. Without her hand pressing on it, the blood flows unimpeded out of the gash in her gut, but she'll be dead soon anyway. Might as well use the hand to help with the recoil.

A web of cracks opens on the glass.

And then the power beam is exploding outward, burning her skin like paper while everything around her goes out in a blaze, leaving her time for one last single thought.  
  
She remembers Nihlus' smile when she boarded the Normandy and finally noticed him. The way his mandibles fluttered open and his eyes crinkled with humour at her surprised reaction at finding him there.

Her life is not a vid, but now that the story is over Shepard hopes that this one single memory will burn itself on the back of her eyelids.

There will be no hidden scenes for her after the credits have rolled out. Still, she hopes that this one single afterimage will accompany her to whatever version of heaven or hell turians and humans share.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> My brain got really attached to Nihlus despite his very brief appearance (I am shaking my fist at you, Bioware) and it wouldn't let me pair my Colonist Shepard with anyone else.  
> I actually spend most of my time in a place called "denial" and crafting Nihlus Lives AUs, but I wanted to also write something different.  
> So, watch me hint at some kind of AU where they get to meet before the Normandy and while Shepard is still a Spectre-in-training. But without many details, because I am still in the process of figuring out how to make them fit into canon, lol


End file.
